Adolf Hitler’s Religion and Ideological Influences in National Socialism

National Socialism in Germany arose partially out of a folk movement in Germany connected to Romanticism and politically existed nearly two decades prior to Hitler. In its manifestation as a matured aesthetic and political force under Hitler, we find that by 1934, economists reported that the Germans look on Hitlerism as a Religion with “no hope for Jews or Liberals.” Hitler saw himself as a political savior.

Adolf Hitler expressed in Mein Kampf:

“Since our view of life will never share power with another, it cannot co-operate with the existing doctrines it condemns. It is obliged to fight by all available means until the entire world of hostile ideas collapses.”

677 MEIN KAMPF

Adolf Hitler’s Religion and Ideological Influences in National Socialism

Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, held complex and evolving religious views that scholars continue to debate. Raised in a Catholic family, he publicly invoked Christian rhetoric for political gain, especially early in his career, but privately expressed disdain for organized Christianity. His ideology drew from a mix of racial theories, German Romanticism, and völkisch mysticism, while rejecting traditional monotheistic faiths. This article examines Hitler’s religious beliefs and the key ideological influences on National Socialism (Nazism), based on scholarly consensus and primary sources. Liebenfels blended crypto-zoology theories with the Teutonic Folk or völkisch as Goodrich-Clarke calls it, in The Occult Roots of Nazism. Adolf Hitler’s militaristic, political machine is more modelled off of the Italian Fascists of Mussolini and the Roman Catholic order of the Jesuits in the medieval times. The Jesuits and Catholics have always had themselves a terrible history against the Masons.

Ideas behind Adolf Hitler’s ideology, or the National Socialists who were interested in mysticism are actually based off a very crude interpreted theory of history held in Ariosophy (a syncretism of Esoteric Teutonism and Christianity), Theozoologie, William Chamberlain and Guido Von List’s works. Hitler in his teens was an avid reader of the Ostara magazine produced by Lanz Von Liebenfels which contained theories that humanity were separated into Pure Aryans versus Sodomites.

HITLER’S CHILDHOOD AND INFLUENCE

Hitler was born in 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria, to a practicing Catholic mother, Klara, and a skeptical father, Alois. He was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church and confirmed in 1904 at the cathedral in Linz. According to biographer Ian Kershaw, Hitler’s early exposure to Catholicism left a lasting imprint from which he derived his religious zealotry, including anti-Semitic tropes common in some Christian teachings of the era, such as the notion of Jews as “Christ-killers” (Kershaw 1998, 11-14). However, witnesses from his youth, as noted by historian John Toland, described him as reluctant during confirmation, suggesting early ambivalence (Toland 1976, 19-20).

By his late teens in Vienna (1907–1913), Hitler distanced himself from the Church. Historian Michael Rissmann reports that witnesses from this period confirm he ceased attending Mass or receiving sacraments after age 18 (Rissmann 2001, 36). Childhood abuse by his father and exposure to pan-German nationalist ideas likely contributed to his rejection of institutional religion.

Political Use of Religion

In public speeches and writings, such as Mein Kampf (1925), Hitler often portrayed himself as a defender of Christianity to appeal to conservative Germans. In a 1922 Munich speech, he stated: “As a Christian I have also a duty to my own people…I believe I would be no Christian, but a very devil, if I felt no pity for them” (Hitler 1922). He described a vision in Mein Kampf of being chosen by Providence for a divine mission.

Scholars like Richard Steigmann-Gall argue that Hitler and many Nazis initially saw themselves as promoting “positive Christianity,” a nondenominational, anti-Semitic version stripped of Jewish elements and aligned with Nazi racial ideology (Steigmann-Gall 2003, 51-60). Hitler praised Martin Luther as a “great reformer” and suggested Protestantism could become the state church. However, this was largely opportunistic; as Richard Overy notes, Hitler was pragmatic, using religion to consolidate power while viewing it as subservient to the state (Overy 2004, 282-283).

Hitler admired Islam for its militaristic ethos, calling it a “religion of men” suited for warriors, unlike what he saw as pacifist Christianity. In a 1941 meeting with Arab leader Khalid al-Hud, he praised Muhammad for expelling Jews from Arabia, drawing parallels to his own policies (Motadel 2014, 58). Scholar David Motadel documented Nazi propaganda efforts to portray Hitler as a prophet-like figure to Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa (Motadel 2014, 57-59).

Responses to National Socialism varied in the Middle East with skepticism; although some Arabs, like Michel Aflaq (Ba’athism founder) admired it for its anti-colonial position (Motadel 2014, 300). Sami al-Jundi recalled early Ba’athists’ fascination with Mein Kampf (Motadel 2014, 301).

DRUG ABUSE, Private Views and Rejection of Christianity

Hitler abused drugs, including opiates and amphetamines, prescribed by Dr. Theodor Morell. Norman Ohler’s Blitzed (2016) details how these fueled his decisions, especially late in the war, contributing to his paranoia and mental decline (Ohler 2016, 135-136).

Privately, in matters of religion, Hitler’s views were more hostile. Albert Speer, his architect and confidant, recalled Hitler railing against Christianity as a “religion fit only for slaves” that rebelled against natural selection (Speer 1970, 96). In Hitler’s Table Talk (1941–1944), a collection of monologues whose authenticity is debated but often cited, Hitler called Christianity “the heaviest blow that ever struck humanity” and a “Jewish invention” (Trevor-Roper 2000, 6). Historian Richard Carrier argues the text is reliable in parts but edited (Carrier 2003); Mikael Nilsson questions its overall authenticity as a verbatim record (Nilsson 2024, 68-70).

Richard Weikart, in Hitler’s Religion (2016), portrays Hitler as a pantheist who equated God with nature and fate, influenced by evolutionary ideas rather than Christianity (Weikart 2016, 73-75). Percy Ernst Schramm describes Hitler’s creed as a form of monism, drawing from Ernst Haeckel’s materialist philosophy (Schramm 1963, 94). Hitler rejected atheism publicly to avoid association with Bolshevism but privately dismissed religious dogma, as noted by Joseph Goebbels in his diaries. However, Mikael Nilsson counters that Hitler’s admiration for Jesus was genuine, rooted in völkisch-Christian interpretations that de-Judaized Christ as an Aryan figure (Nilsson 2024, 124-126).

GERMAN NATIONALISM AND FOLKDOM

Nazism emerged from the völkisch movement, rooted in nineteenth-century German Romanticism, which idealized a mythical Teutonic past and racial purity. It predated Hitler, forming in the late 19th century amid economic turmoil and anti-Semitism.

Ariosophy was developed by Guido von List and Lanz von Liebenfels. It blended Teutonic mythology, racial hierarchy, and occult ideas. Hitler read Liebenfels’ Ostara magazine in his youth, which posited Aryans as a master race versus “sodomites” (including Jews) (Goodrick-Clarke 1985, 97). Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, in The Occult Roots of Nazism (1985), traces a connection, but emphasizes Ariosophy was a fringe influence, not central to Nazism (Goodrick-Clarke 1985, 192-193). Claims of deeper occult control, like Thule Society dominance are seen as myths (Goodrick-Clarke 1985, 217-220).

Houston Stewart Chamberlain’s Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1899) promoted Aryan supremacy. Hitler admired Chamberlain, visiting him in 1923 (Kershaw 1998, 161).

Theosophy promoted universal brotherhood and equality, viewing all humanity as one essence with no inferior races (Goodrick-Clarke 1985, 18-19). While concepts like root races and Aryans (originally Indo-European peoples including Semites) were later distorted by Ariosophists, Theosophy itself was antithetical to Nazism’s racial hierarchies and was not a direct influence (Goodrick-Clarke 1985, 19)¹. Nazis banned the Theosophical Society in 1937 as “Masonic-like” (Goodrick-Clarke 1985, 218). No evidence supports past fabricated claims that a copy of The Secret Doctrine was found in Hitler’s bunker (Goodrick-Clarke 1985, 217).

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was an anti-Semitic forgery that fueled Nazi conspiracies. Hitler knew it was fake but used it anyway, as reported by Hermann Rauschning (though his reliability is questioned) (see Kershaw 1998, 239). Yuliana Glinka, briefly associated with Theosophy, helped spread it, but this does not implicate Theosophy broadly (Goodrick-Clarke 1985, 33-34).

The National Socialists echoed Italian Fascism under Mussolini and Jesuit organizational structure for discipline, and the post-WWI economic crisis amplified völkisch sentiment. Expeditions to Tibet (1938–1939) sought Aryan origins, led by Ernst Schäfer under Himmler’s SS, reflecting occult interests in Shambhala-like myths (Motadel 2014, 88-89).

Hitler saw his party as embodying a “political religion,” with himself as a messianic figure. By 1934, Germans viewed “Hitlerism” as a quasi-religion, according to contemporary reports (Kershaw 2000, 4-5).

THIRD REICH POLICIES ON RELIGION AND INFLUENCES ON MODERN POLITICS

The regime pursued “Kirchenkampf” (church struggle) to subordinate churches. The 1933 Reich Concordat with the Vatican was ignored, leading to Catholic persecutions (Steigmann-Gall 2003, 199-200). Protestants were coerced into a unified Reich Church promoting positive Christianity. There were deliberate efforts to rewrite history and Christian scripture from the German Christian Movement to align Protestant Christianity with Nazi racial ideology and create this form of “Positive Christianity” that would be free of Jewish influence. This included rewriting the New Testament to reframe Jesus not as the Lamb of God or a servant, but as a heroic, militaristic figure who fought against the Jews.  Key characteristics of this version, titled Die Botschaft Gottes (The Message of God) has been confused as being “Hitler’s notes on the Bible.” The publication often referred to informally as “Hitler’s Bible” was actually a doctored version of the New Testament produced by the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Church Life, which was founded in 1939 with Hitler’s explicit approval.

Long-term plans, according to Kershaw, involved eradicating Christianity after the war (Kershaw 2000, 516). Jehovah’s Witnesses were banned for pacifism; and Jews were targeted as racial enemies.

Anthroposophy and other esoteric groups, like Rudolf Steiner’s were suppressed. Despite similarities in terms of function, Paneurhythmy (a Bulgarian sacred dance) did not influence Hitler Youth rallies, which focused on militaristic drills and indoctrination (Goodrick-Clarke 1985, 218).

These performances rooted in German folk tradition mirrored the synchronized locomotion of animals and insects to produce a mesmerizing sense of unified collective will.

Hitler admired the structure of the Jesuit order and Islam was its approach to governing. Islam also possessed a similar formula for conquest similar to underlying reasoning for expansionism of the Reich, in the combination of mysticism, military, polity and State political organization:

“… because we were jointly fighting the Jews. This led him to discuss Palestine and conditions there, and he then stated that he himself would not rest until the last Jew had left Germany. Kalid al Hud observed that the Prophet Mohammed … had acted the same way. He had driven the Jews out of Arabia …”

Hitler and Khalid al-Hud in Conversation, (Lewis, 2002)²

Sami al-Joundi³ once wrote, “We were racists. We admired the Nazis. We were immersed in reading Nazi literature and books that were the source of the Nazi spirit. We were the first who thought of a translation of Mein Kampf. (Al-Joundi, Ba’ath, 1969). Anyone who lived in Damascus at that time was witness to the Arab inclination toward Nazism. Lewis explained that Michel Aflaq a founder of the Ba’athist philosophy admired Hitler and the Nazis for standing up to Britain and America (see Lewis, Semites and Anti-Semites, p. 159). This admiration would combine aspects of Nazism into Ba’athism.

In conclusion, Hitler’s religion was a pragmatic tool for power, evolving into a pantheistic worldview centered on race and nature, though some scholars argue for lingering Christian influences. National Socialism’s influences were primarily völkisch and racial, with occult elements exaggerated in popular German and Nordicist myths. Scholarly works continuously emphasized, that the development of Nazi ideology is born out of political opportunism, rather than genuine spirituality.

---

RESOURCES AND Bibliography

• Bernard Lewis. 2002. The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives. W.W. Norton & Company. 
• Bernard Lewis. 1986. Semites and Anti-Semites; Sami Al-Joundi, 1969. Ba’ath. Beirut: Dar al-Nahar.
• Richard Weikart. 2016. Hitler’s Religion: The Twisted Beliefs that Drove the Third Reich. Washington, DC: Regnery History.
• Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. 1985. The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology. New York: New York University Press.
• Adolf Hitler. 1922. Speech in Munich.
• Ian Kershaw. 1998. Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
• Ian Kershaw. 2000. Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
• David Motadel. 2014. Islam and Nazi Germany’s War. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
• Mikael Nilsson. 2024. Christianity in Hitler’s Ideology: The Role of Jesus in Nazi Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Norman Ohler. 2016. Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich. Translated by Shaun Whiteside. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
• Richard Overy. 2004. The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
• Percy Ernst Schramm. 1963. Hitler: The Man and the Military Leader. Translated by Donald S. Detwiler. Chicago: Quadrangle Books.
• Albert Speer. 1970. Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs. Translated by Richard and Clara Winston. New York: Macmillan.
• Richard Steigmann-Gall. 2003. The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• John Toland. 1976. Adolf Hitler. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
• Hugh Trevor-Roper, ed. 2000. Hitler’s Table Talk, 1941-1944: His Private Conversations. New York: Enigma Books.

---

FOOTNOTE